Change and Growth of Daycare Center Director through Experience of Participation in Learning Community

In this study, we qualitatively explored the changes and growth of daycare center directors through learning community participation experiences. The participants in the study were six directors of daycare centers in H city. The learning community was conducted from August 2021 to January 2022. As a result of this study, first, problem awareness and problem solving strategies have changed at the group level. The critical mind went through busy work and problems, teachers' problems, principles and practice problems, and problems with the daycare center's operating system to find problems within themselves. The awareness of the problem turned from the outside to the inside. The problem-solving strategies were 'Utilizing breaks from work', 'Overcoming the old me', 'Breaking the old frame and rebuilding from the basics', and 'Teaching centered on teachers'. Second, individual consciousness has changed. As a result of the analysis of individual consciousness, face-to-face, meeting/questioning, self-awareness, internal change, external change, internal/external change, and self-reflection were different for each individual. In addition, the research participants newly established 10 principles. This included the director's mental and physical management, emotional and business support for teachers, and systematic director's work management. In this study, more active practice and self-reflection emerged as the learning community proceeded in a way that discovered problems from the director's own experience and derived practical tasks. Therefore, substantial changes and growth occurred to the research participants. Therefore, the subject reflecting the individual circumstances and demands of the director, a learning community accompanied by practice and self-reflection must be introduced as a method of re-educating the director.